The present invention relates to semiconductor fabrication facilities, and more specifically, to an electronic system and method to build, retrieve, and track knowledge for troubleshooting in maintaining semiconductor tools.
Since the invention of the integrated circuit (IC), the semiconductor industry has grown dramatically to today's ultra-large scale IC's (ULSIC's). This growth has been achieved through technological progress not only in materials, design, and processing, but also in fabrication automation. Advances in IC technology, coupled with improved mass production, provide a driving force for automation. Automation brings higher quality, shorter cycle time and lower cost, which in return drive broader IC applications and higher market demand.
Integrated circuits are produced by multiple processes in a wafer fabrication facility (fab). These processes include, for example, thermal oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, RTP (rapid thermal processing), CVD (chemical vapor deposition), PVD (physical vapor deposition), epitaxy, etch, and photolithography. Each process requires very precise control of numerous process parameters. This requirement is typically achieved by a complex system of both hardware and software, collectively referred to as “semiconductor tools”. The terms tool, machine, and equipment are sometimes used interchangeably.
When a product has a yield issue, or new failure mode, or a tool has a malfunction or problem, all manufacturing information including processing control data, production yield data, and tool control data can be used in a manual fashion to help engineers to identify, isolate and pinpoint the problem.
Currently, there is no efficient database to combine all manufacturing data together, and to dynamically organize, maintain, and relate all the data for use in efficient solving of problems relating to semiconductor processes.